Ranch King opposed twin - always tinkering.

Nice! Any plans for the Monkey Wards yet?

MatthewD wrote:

Nice! Any plans for the Monkey Wards yet?

thanks, and not yet.

Going on a crawl with a bunch of guys next month; one of my buddies is gonna ride that one as long as I can get it going good enough to handle 6-10 hours of continuous running. The Varidrive makes me nervous, only because I haven't worked on that before, but otherwise i don't think there's a lot to do with it. a little fab work with the gear selector plate, a lot of cleaning, a fresh belt or 2, carb tuning, a new battery, and it'll be a solid little mower. Oh, and a little electrical... the lights don't work right now. After that it'll likely either get sold off or donated.

Got the Ward's torn down. A fresh battery and fresh gas was all it took to get it running... sorta. a fresh battery, a couple hours worth of spark plug and carb work, and a couple new hose clamps later, and it runs like a champ.

spent some time cleaning the thing and inspecting the belts/varidrive (not terribly complicated, it turns out), and everything surprisingly seems in good order. THe belts have a couple cracks, but surprisingly in good shape under all that grease, oil, grass, dirt, and mouse crap.

Got the tires reseated and inflated. Never actually done that before.

Nothin much on the ranch king to speak of. Unless I finally pull the trigger on some tires, it's probably going to stay as is until after the big ride in October.

rstolz wrote:

Got the Ward's torn down.  A fresh battery and fresh gas was all it took to get it running... sorta.  a fresh battery, a couple hours worth of spark plug and carb work, and a couple new hose clamps later, and it runs like a champ.

spent some time cleaning the thing and inspecting the belts/varidrive (not terribly complicated, it turns out), and everything surprisingly seems in good order.  THe belts have a couple cracks, but surprisingly in good shape under all that grease, oil, grass, dirt, and mouse crap.

remember all this?

Lies! The more I did, the more I found. missing engine mount bolts (2 of them having stripped threads), alignment way out of whack, It doesn't have the OEM transaxle, carb tuning was terrible, static governor was misadjusted. Having a hard time getting it to idle properly, but both springs are pretty bad on the governor, so at this point, that's probably most of the issue. carb is clean as a whistle. did a front pulley swap, increased engine pulley to 4.5" from 3.5" (it was late, I forgot to snap a pic, but pretty straightforward and typical)

When I hooked up a tach I found that yea, it ran and sounded ok, but peaked at 2500 RPM...

If anyone's interested:
From what I could find
Tractor model: 33939A - Montgomery Ward 12/42
engine code: 281707-0411
12hp single cylinder OHV I/C
Peak Torque: 2400 RPM
Governed OEM RPM: 3600 RPM
OEM idle: 1750 RPM
(from B&S documents)
engine specs were surprisingly difficult to find. Was much easier getting info on the old Ranch King.

A couple pics from the ride:

I'm not the organizer, and the last organizer killed it cuz it got too big and folks started trashing the route once word started getting around, so I'm not going to give any details on where this was.  The new folks running the show turned it from a purely fun event into a breast cancer fund raiser.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

Anyway, the pics:

had to remove the front wheels from both to get them to fit in the trailer.


besides our group of 4, those were the only other tractors, the one in the middle shoehorned a V-twin in place of the old Oppy that dropped a valve.


the booze wagon.


The Ranch King and a buddy's old restored Deere (early 60's).  That thing is slow as balls, but never gets stuck, it just continues to crawl, putting along the whole way.

The King was bullet proof, and got a lot of looks with the winch, rack, and the speeds I was able to blast around at.

The old duct taped Ward's ran strong all day, and was surprisingly fuel efficient... until it threw the rear belt.  we left it where it lie, threw my buddy on the booze wagon, and went back for the Ward's later.  was a great day, fun had by all.

Finally got the 6.3" OEM pulley for the '91 Ward's after just about 4 weeks of backorder. I wanted to bbe able to put it all back to stock if I ever decide to sell it or give it away, so, welding a trasn pulley wasn't a good option.

As was the plan last year, the plan for next year is pretty similar, and with the project car needing no major work for next year, I should have more time with the tractors:

For the King:
*Tires -all 4
*plow for the front - I have the plow, just needs mounting now
*larger front pulley
*exhaust.
*cup holder
And if I get crazy:
*switch the brake to the left so I can properly mount a foot throttle on the right
*lock the rear

The Wards:
*New Hood
*New seat
*finish rear pulley work
*cup holder
*new headlights/headlight wiring

another quickie update:  I got the plow mounted the night before it snowed 15 inches.  I looked at doing it a few different ways, in the end I decided on simple.  made 2 mounting plates, drilled the bumper, bolted the mounting plate to the bumper, then bolted the bracket for the plow (notched to allow the winch cable to pass over it without hitting) to the mounting plates.  bolted an eyeloop to the plow arm for the winch to hook onto for raising and lowering, and that was it.  piece of cake really once I had the plan.  




Worked better than I thought, too.  Definitely needs chains/more weight, but even without that it moved some really heavy snow.  I'd like to figure out a way to angle the blade from my seat as well...

Well I see all my picture links are broken.  I'll get that sorted.  Haven't touched my photobucket in a little while so not sure why they all went dead, but no biggie.

On to the fun stuff.

Tires!  It only took 2 years of looking at them to finally pull the trigger.Wonder how long before I actually get them installed...  I jumped on em because it seems to be that CST is mandating a sale.  These tires are marked down to ~$68 from ~$90 just about everywhere I looked, and I got free shipping. They aren't Ag's, but I think these will be better all-around do everything tires.


This year's build-off looks to be a good one! And that bumper being donated is a sweet prize! Wish I could dedicate the time to jump in, but I just don't think its in the cards.

So it looks like the issue with my pics might be a wider photobucket issue, the whole site is down "for maintenance"

been a while, but I'm still bouncing around stalking the build-off.

Finally got around to mounting the new tires. got it done in the garage with the wheels still on the tractor. Getting the old tires off was interesting... someone decided superglue made a good beadlocker. Too good as it turns out, I had to cut a hole through the sidewall to get enough leverage with a prybar to break the dam bead.

This is what got the tires on the rim:
a screwdriver
automotive trim tool
ratchet strap
some WD40

This got the bead set:
some Aviation gasket maker,
2 ratchet straps
75psi sustained Line pressure

The key, I found, to setting the bead had to do with the gasket maker (nasty, thick shellac type stuff), and placement of the straps; I used 2 each 2" straps, placed roughly along that second row of tread from the outside edge. It didn't take a lot of cinching either.

I'll get a couple pics up here soon, my phone took a crap.

Worth every minute and every penny! Traction far superior to the old turfs, and no damage to the grass, even pulling a fully loaded 1500lb boat trailer.

Now I really need to get that exhaust fixed...